How To Hem Your Jeans With The Original Hem

We did a post on this about a year and a half ago but the pictures were not very big. I thought I would do an updated version of my own jeans that I have hemmed using the original hem method. It’s really easy, anyone can do it even if you are not a master with the sewing machine.

* Be sure to only do this method on skinny or straight jeans as it doesn’t work on bootcut or flares due to the fabric not being the same width around the ankle area.

1) Lie your jeans out on a flat surface and measure the inseam. Note down how much you want to take off of the length and half it. Always remember not to include the actual hem itself in your measurements as you will not be taking any off the hem. It’s easier to do one leg at a time so you wont have to undo both if any mistakes are made.

2) Fold the hem of your jeans inside out to the correct length you have measured, in the example this would be measuring 1″ of the fold as I am taking off 2″ in total (do not include the hem itself in the measurement). Re measure from the crotch to just under the original hem that has been folded outwards and make sure it is your perfect length (minus the hem width itself). Do not measure right to the end of the jeans where the fold is, your jeans will not be this long as you are not sewing at the bottom of the fold. You might want to get an iron and make sure that the fold is flattened down, I personally use an old hair straightener quickly (be careful not to press it down for a long time so you don’t burn the denim) as it’s easier to put the plates each side and flatten it. Make sure the seams on the left and right side of the leg match up correctly to the hem once it’s folded. Now put some pins in all the way around to hold your fold in place.

3) Now you are going to sew all the way around the hem. I have drawn some pink stitch marks on the image so you can see where to sew. You need to sew right under the hem, not on the actual hem itself. Sew just under it so you are only going through 2 pieces of denim (the folded bit). You can either do this by hand with a simple forward stitch secured at both ends or with a sewing machine. I personally do it by hand as it’s easier for me and it’s easier if you wish to let the hem down. It doesn’t matter which colour thread you use or how neat your sewing is as the stitching will be on the inside of the jeans and invisible on the outside. Be sure not to sew the leg opening together so opening ends up closed.

4) Take out all of the pins once you have finished your sewing. Now comes the tricky part. Fold the hem back down/in so the folded part you have sewn goes back inside the jeans. Get your iron or old hair straightener in my case and flatten it all out, you need to make sure you have flattened and pressed the hem down all the way around. If you have done it correctly it should look like the images below.

Now you have a pair of original hemmed jeans. Since we didn’t cut the hem off and re attach it this is a perfect way to let the hem down again back to the original length if you need to. If you have any questions just post a comment and I will be happy to reply.

[...] I am happy to report that I successfully hemmed my own jeans with the original hem. And it was actually pretty easy. I found a couple of blogs with tutorials to get me started: Dacia Ray and Denim Blog. [...]

Hi kelly, no it doesn’t work with boot cut jeans, if you are taking a lot off anyway. The hem of the boot cut jeans is wider than where you would be sewing it too, so it will be all lump and bumpy because of the excess fabric. The widest it works on is straight leg because the material is the same width.

You may want to note somewhere in the post that this isn’t ideal for boot cut. I’m sure I’m not the first person to try this method before reading the comments and realizing that it’s not really the best method.

This is a wonderful method – but I can’t see why the excess should not be cut off unless this method is used on children’s jeans. For adults there is no point in leaving all that bulk in the hem area as it is highly unlikely that the jeans would ever need to be lengthened again. Just cut it off and overlock the edge. I also cannot understand why anyone would think you can make a wider piece of material fix a narrower one i.e. on bootcut jeans!!!!

Does this method also work with pants made out of other material (polyester, wool, cotton, linen, etc.)? Is the new seam (where the material is pinched in on the inside of the leg) in seen easier on those materials? Or does this method work best with jeans (where it’s harder to see the seam where the material is pinched in)? Thanks.

Hi Barbara, I’ve never actually tried it with anything other than jeans. I think jeans would work best purely because the denim is thicker and the seam is thicker too, with other pants, it might get quite floppy. If there is a regular seam on your other pants then just making a new seam on the hem line is the best option I would say, we do this for jeans as the seam is chain stitched and hard to re create. Hope that helps!

Hi Lorna. Your thoughts echo mine perfectly and definitely helps tremendously. I also suspected that the heavier denim material in jeans made this technique more suitable for jeans than for other non-denim pants. I also agree that the hard to re-create chain stitching on jeans necessitates a solution like this, as opposed to the much easier to copy stitching of other pants. Thanks again for your answer and great blog!

I noticed someone’s comment about having to iron the folds flat after washing every time. Sounds like a couple things might be going on: it’s just finnicky fabric, or the jeans are being dried fully in the dryer.

I haven’t tried this hemming method yet (will do so on a friend’s kid’s jeans soon though!), but I used to have indigo trouser-fit jeans that I put in a “fold crease” down the front, like on men’s trousers – looks great when paired with heels/boots, which always takes up some of that slack, so I always have 2 lengths of jeans going on anyway, heels and flats. I could get the crease out of any well-made wider/flared jeans pretty easily:
1) Choose a crease line I want (or in this case, go with the new hem work)
2) Iron the dickens out of it to set that line
3) THEN after each washing:
• straight out of the washer, refold the WET crease you want, PRESS it, and fully air dry flat (easiest in dry months),
• or PARTLY dry in dryer (rainy days/months) and do the same – re-fold/press crease and finish drying flat.

Same concept for any bend in the fabric, whether it runs vertically or horizontally.

Oh, I just remembered: it doesn’t work as well on synthetics & synth-fabric blends, so if the fabric isn’t of 100% natural fibers (cotton/wool/linen), then the press-wet/damp-fold-then-air-dry method doesn’t hold nearly as well.
So, in synthetic/blend cases—or if in a drying rush, well…happy ironing.

PS–sorry for the lengthy comment! I never realized how hard it is to explain something that’s easier shown…now I understand why a picture says a thousand words!

I’m a novice @ sewing… If I cut off the hem, how much do I leave for binding and how do I then overcast the edges? I have watched a video on how to overcast on my machine (not a serger,) but I don’t know if I should bind the two edges together or separately. Then, how do I keep it from ‘sticking out’ onto my leg?